I'm not sure where that little shop is. Have you looked at the Nancy Chandler map?
Nancy Chandler is a household name among expat women in Bangkok. You probably own at least one of her maps, and have relied on its expert advice many times. Perhaps you've sent her Christmas cards to friends and family back home, and maybe you've even had your name cards printed with her signature designs. But what do you really know about her?
Nancy Chandler: The woman behind the map
Photo by Ludovic Cazeba
Acclimate, February 2009
A northern California native and the daughter of an artist mom and interior designer dad, perhaps Nancy was always destined for an artistic life. Though she majored in art history at university, Nancy herself never trained as an artist.
Nancy met and married her husband, and when he graduated from Harvard Law School, they noted that many of his colleagues were heading overseas to work short contracts in Africa. That sounded like fun, so they made arrangements to head out themselves.
Instead of Africa, though, Asia was to be their next home. In 1965, they were sent to Nepal, where they lived in a farmhouse with dirt floors and Nancy became pregnant with their first child, Nima. It was there that Nancy found the inspiration to start drawing. Her husband's contract eventually expired, but they were eager to stay so that Nancy could give birth in Nepal. Now, without her husband's paid employment, Nancy's sketches were their only income. Wanderlust called again when Nima was 2 months old, and for the next three months, the little family traveled around Asia and Africa.
After those few months travelling, it seemed like the right time to return to the U.S. They lived in Washington, D.C., and tried to establish a good life. But 11 months later, they grew bored. When they caught wind of an opportunity in Bangkok, they were off again. "We were pretty adventurous in the old days!" Nancy recalls with a laugh.
Nancy moves to Bangkok
In 1969, with toddler Nima in tow and another baby on the way, the Chandlers headed to Thailand. Things sure were different then than they are today, and it's not surprising that Nancy doesn't have too much sympathy for expats who complain about Bangkok's limitations. "That was before Villa. There was only one grocery store. And taxis? When you'd actually find one, there were no meters and certainly no air conditioning. You had to negotiate the fare for every ride, and you'd get exhausted bargaining." Then, when meters did eventually come, the drivers always claimed they were broken. "In those first two years of meters, I only ever had one driver who used it!" she laughs. "Everything was much slower then."
Nancy had learned to speak Nepali while living there and was eager to learn Thai. "Nepali was really easy, but Thai is really difficult with all the tones." Nancy found a patient teacher willing to teach practical conversation, like how to talk to the nursing staff who would assist her through her pregnancy and birth. "I worked so hard, only to find out that all the nurses were Australian! Of course, I did enjoy using my Thai to discuss 'deep politics' with taxi drivers," she says kiddingly.
During her years in Bangkok, Nancy was the "supreme expat mom," recalls Nima, who now manages Nancy's business operations. "She was always so active: the AWC, PTA, the school board." She learned the city through a steady stream of lunches, dinners and other social events. Among her many projects, Nancy volunteered as an illustrator for the American Women's Club's magazine, Sawaddi.
A map is born
Though she never studied cartography, her sketches inspired the editor to ask Nancy to draw a map to illustrate an upcoming story about Bangkok's markets. She started with the weekend market (which was then at Sanam Luang, near the Grand Palace). Then, when she and a friend started checking out Chinatown, they started realizing that there were so many interesting shopping areas to explore. The map grew and grew, from a simple illustration to a four-page fold out that covered much of the city.
Its popularity kept growing. "We want the magazine with the map!" expat ladies would say. Every few years, as the city would change, Nancy would produce and print a new map.
"By doing the maps," Nancy says, "I've watched Bangkok grow."
From drawings to a business
Nima says that the business is different today; it has to be different. "Back then," she says, "the maps were all about her and her friends and their interests. She would add dots for her friends' houses that were particularly difficult to find!" When she was into etching, she noted all of her etching supply stores on that year's map. And, indeed, the tiny soi where Nima lives today appears on the map as well. "But today we have to think about what tourists want, too. And today we have new expat enclaves like Nonthaburi that didn't exist back then."
The production process has changed, too. Up until two years ago, the maps were drawn by hand. "A little spit on a Q-tip, and changes were made," Nima laughs.
"I resisted for 30 years," Nancy admits. "I thought it would lose its character…and I didn't want to learn how to do it on the computer!" Now that it's all been computerized, however, Nancy concedes that the process really is much easier and more efficient.
But the industry is much more competitive, too. As more and more maps are available for free, fewer tourists are inclined to pay for the Nancy Chandler map. Local expats know, of course, that no other map comes close to providing the helpful details. But, to a newcomer or tourist who doesn't know any better, "free" is a compelling offer.
In addition to maps, Nancy Chandler Graphics Company, as it's now known, also sells greeting and holiday cards, personalized name cards, coloring books, and many different gifts, all printed with the iconic style recognized by expat women throughout Bangkok.
What she's doing today
Today, Nancy spends most of her time back in northern California, living with her youngest daughter, Kim, who has Down's syndrome. When Nancy and her husband divorced amicably back in 1986, she waited until her middle daughter Siri graduated from ISB and headed off to university, and then took Kim back to the U.S. where she knew her options for schooling were broader.
"I don't fill my days being busy, busy, busy," Nancy says. "I was so busy when we were here [in Bangkok]. I just don't do that anymore."
In California, Nancy keeps up with the artwork for the business, and is also exploring photography and print-making. Her home is filled with "lots of creative clutter that Nima tries to clean up every so often." Then, for a few months each winter, Nancy and Kim come back to Bangkok to catch up with Nima, Siri, and the business built on her name and creativity.